Writer Andrew Hankinson has attempted to get inside the mind of killer Raoul Moat for his first book.

Called ‘You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [you are Raoul Moat]’, it will inevitably be controversial because of its subject matter.

However, the style of the book might surprise those used to the usual exploitative true crime books.

It contains no pictures bar a front cover portrait of Moat as a child all but obscured by the title of the book.

And written in the rarely used ‘second person’, it has drawn plaudits from a number of literary heavyweights who have seen advance copies of it while it has been named on the books to read in 2016 lists of the Guardian and the New Statesman.

The book is an attempt to re-tell Moat’s story using his words, gleaned from years of research by journalist Andrew.

He said: “It took a lot of hard work and years of research to complete.

“I didn’t set out to write a controversial book - I’m aware the name Raoul Moat will put off as many people as it attracts.

“I just thought watching the events unfold at the time, this would make a good book.”

In July 2010 Moat, then 37, was released from Durham prison and went on a shooting spree, injuring his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, killing her new boyfriend Christopher Brown and seriously injuring PC David Rathband who was left blind and later took his own life.

Moat went on the run and after one of the biggest manhunts ever carried out in the UK he was tracked to Rothbury, Northumberland. Following a stand off with police he shot himself in the head.

While the book actually begins with a psychotherapy questionnaire filled in by Moat in 2008, it then cuts to the nine days from Moat’s release from jail to his death in Rothbury.

The first chapter is dated Thursday July 1, 2010 with the ominous title ‘You will die in eight days’.

Its distinctive second person narrative begins: “They release you from prison at 10.55am. The North East is bright and sunny [as it often isn’t]. Your mission [as you explained to another prisoner] is to get the gun, shoot Sam, shoot her boyfriend, shoot Sam’s mum for trying to split you up, shoot the social worker who p*ssed you off, shoot the psychiatrist for giving you a negative report [though you can’t remember their name] and point the gun at the police until they shoot you.”

At that time of these events Andrew, 35, was living and working in London. But he decided to return to his native North East to begin working on the book.

“I just started doing research, trying to interview people - not getting very far to begin, to be honest. I tried to gather as many documents as I could.”

Karl Ness and Qhuram Awan

He attended the trial of Moat’s accomplices - Karl Ness and Qhuram Awan - who are both now serving life sentences as well as attending Moat’s inquest.

While he didn’t go to that of Christopher Brown, he had a transcript of the hearing to work from.

And there was a wealth of information from Moat’s contact with police and state services, the hours of tapes he recorded whilst on the run of which Andrew also had transcripts, the notes to Samantha, and even tapes Moat had made before he went to prison.

He said: “Going through the documents looking for things, things I thought progressed the story, was interesting.

“One of the things he kept talking about was his dad. He told his psychiatrist that he had these great memories of growing up in France among vineyards. It wasn’t true. He told people English was his second language and that his dad was French. That’s one of the things that was very, very important to him.

“He never met his dad - he was from Birmingham - but created this myth about him. He told this to strangers, he told it to girls to impress them. I don’t know if he actually convinced himself of it.”

While some of his research was interesting and intriguing, he added: “Listening to him on tapes wasn’t nice. He knew what he wanted to do.”

Over the course of his work he contacted PC Rathband, Samantha and the mother of her boyfriend but they didn’t want to comment.

However, Moat’s brother Angus and his uncle Charles Alexander “were very helpful”.

“Angus wanted to sit down and talk to me first before we went any further. We had a chat and he seemed satisfied with what I was doing.”

He added: “I went to Rothbury with him. He wanted to go somewhere where his brother had gone as a child.

“It was kind of weird to be talking to someone related to that person involved in such a big news story. Angus had a lot of criticism from people for some of his public comments - but he always seemed reasonable to me.”

The book of course covers all the shootings and while not gratuitous, it still makes uncomfortable reading.

The story of Moat will always divide people. For everyone who saw him as cold blood killer, there are those who consider him a legend, an anti hero.

However despite the avowed attempt to write about Raoul Moat “in his own words”, Andrew isn’t one of those who bought into his cult standing, nor, he says, is his book aimed at those who did.

Andrew explained that ‘in Moat’s own words’ meant sticking with Moat’s vocabulary and his phrasing revealed in the documents, capturing his rant and lies, of which there are many and which Andrew corrects in parentheses - [] - in the book.

He said there were plenty of help available to Moat - for his mental health issues, his problems with violence - and that social services did engage with him, but he didn’t turn up for appointments.

He added the title of his book - ‘You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life’ was chosen to make clear it was Moat who made decisions that made his life worse.

Andrew added: “He decided to kill people and, afterwards, he didn’t really care that he had.”

You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] by Andrew Hankinson is published this week by Scribe and costs £12.99.